Overview
Two very simple questions to deal with here before letting you get on with what really matters to you as a reader of short fiction in the horror genre.
Our first easy problem to resolve: What is horror?
...No matter what these short fictions may be called today, let us hope that in years to come they will be remembered, at the very least, as tales purposely created to induce a suitable frisson. (What the French gourmets describe as that delightful chill up and down the spine when the horror finally hits home.)...
Our second pressing question is to try and answer one of the hoariest questions ever put to a writer: Where do you get your ideas?
...I accepted no less than 17 new stories, with each contributor being previously informed that they must answer the classic question "Where did you get your idea?" as part of the concept. The selected responses of these writers made for a new series of After-Words, which...follow on the heels of their individual stories.
...Whether or not the personal responses made by the writers themselves shed any further light on how to label their stories: horror, dark fantasy, dark suspense, you'll have to decide for yourself.